Brexit - What does it mean for business and what do our European cousins think? (I feel a road trip coming on)

Digital Entrepreneur Limited 08 June 2016 16:45

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10 June 2016 12:00

Brexit - what does it mean for business and what do our European cousins think?

As a UK citizen and keen digital entrepreneur I have been thinking more and more about Brexit over the last few months and how this might affect my various different ventures, especially those that are active in Europe. On Thursday 23rd June 2016 the UK will vote either to remain in or leave the European Union and (if you believe the hype) this is by far the biggest decision we will make in our lifetime.

As a result I am still undecided about Brexit, which is not good as time is running out. I don't want to just vote off the back of a hunch, I want to really vote with meaning. This means I need information, I need to know the benefits of Brexit, of remaining in the EU or of leaving. But what impact would Brexit have on entrepreneurs in general and what about other Europeans, do they want us to stay in the EU or would they rather we leave? To answer these questions I need to talk to as many Europeans (entrepreneurs or not) as I can and the only way to do this is to get on my bike and go see them!

A road trip is born!

Starting tomorrow therefore I have a road trip ahead of me - I intend to travel across Europe to the Warsaw and Berlin #DigiDinners as part of my road trip and blog about the ride as I go, taking time to talk to as many Europeans as possible about the impact of the resulting vote, either way, take 360° pictures, live stream some parts of the trip and of course the #DigiDinner events themselves.

For 10 years I have been travelling around Europe on my BMW K1200S motorbike covering more miles than I can remember with a smile on my face as wide as Europe itself so the ride is nothing new but the theme is completely new and something I am very much looking forward to.

My Schedule

I leave London on Friday the 15th June and will be travelling down to Folkestone to catch the train through the Channel Tunnel - once in Calais, the first of the European countries I intend to visit I will be heading East towards Warsaw which is approximately 1,462KM or 14 hours of steady riding away - 2 hours of which I will do on Friday afternoon hopefully arriving in Antwerp, Belgium around 5pm.

On Saturday I hope to ride for 4 hours in total to get as far as Hanover in Germany for my second night before on Sunday doing 5 hours towards Poznan in Poland for Sunday night and finally to Warsaw for Monday night. Tuesday we have the Warsaw #DigiDinner then turning back on myself I hope to make it back to Poznan for Wednesday night then on to Berlin in time for the Berlin #DigiDinner on Thursday night. Friday morning I head back to Hanover and Saturday I hope to get to Rotterdam just in time to catch my ferry leaving for Hull at 20:30.

The exact map can be seen here but I am more than happy to take the odd detour if you would like to meet!

Once in Hull I only live a few short miles North near Pickering so should be home for Fathers Day!

The conclusion

I will try to gauge opinion where I can and speak to as many people as possible then feed this back here during the trip and as a conclusion as the end of the trip with an update on my final vote on the 23rd. If you are along my route please do not hesitate to get in touch, regardless of how the vote goes, I would love to meet as many people as possible whilst I still can!